WawonaNews.com - March 2012

Year in Yosemite: On View

Before we left Los Angeles to live in Yosemite National Park, we lived in a very nice neighborhood on a lovely tree-lined street. Our daughter was at a school we liked; our closest friends were just minutes away. It should have been perfect, but I had a problem. Every night I'd wake up gasping for breath, feeling as if the city were closing in on me.

That feeling left when we moved to Yosemite. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could breathe. It helped that we moved to quiet, laid-back Wawona and not to Yosemite Valley. The Valley is stunningly scenic but its towering granite walls, narrow valley floor and endless summer traffic jams leave me feeling hemmed in too. Living in a national park, I've come to realize that everyone has their own favorite type of scenery. Some love the deserts. Others prefer the prairies. What speaks to me are wide-open places.

Give me the rolling hills of Yellowstone over the narrow slot canyons of the Grand Canyon. I'll take meadows over forests and the sweeping pasturelands of the Sierra foothills over the mountains themselves. Even in parks defined by their valleys, I prefer the open views from on high. That's why we encourage all our friends to hike to Sentinel Dome with its 8,300-foot- high, 360-degree view of the valley and much of the rest of the park. And no visit to Zion is complete without leaving its exquisite valley to circle back through the town of Virgin to Kolob Reservoir Road for the ride to the crest of the park.

Few people venture that way. We found it only by accident. (The National Park Service seems to do little to publicize it, probably because one passes through miles of private lands before reentering the park). At every turn in the road, the views spread out in awe-inspiring grandeur; while in the foreground, green and gold pasturelands push up against deep vermilion rock to create what, I think, is some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Forgive me but I'm a vista junkie and can't seem to help myself. I like the West's horizontal plains better than the East's vertical cities. Africa, with its huge salt pans and miles of unspoiled savannah, seems like heaven to me.

So how am I going to transition back to over-developed Southern California when we leave Yosemite this summer? We got lucky. Our new home is located where the city is forced to stop and the Pacific takes over. If I can leave Yosemite with its "Pinch me, I-can't-believe-I-get-to-live-here quality," it's only because every time I look up to see the sky meet the sea, I'm again overwhelmed by that "pinch-me" feeling.

In May 2009, while hiking in Yosemite National Park, long-time Los Angeles resident Jamie Simons turned to her husband and said, "I want to live here." Jamie and her family have since lived in the park. Check out all of her blog articles by clicking here.

02/24/2012

Year in Yosemite: To Manners Born

"Sure he (Astaire) was great, but don't forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards...and in high heels!" -- Bob Thaves

For the women who visited Yosemite in the mid-to-late 1800s, the trip was no walk in the park. Before there were roads into Yosemite, there were steep, windy trails and women had to traverse them on horseback, same as men. But unlike the men, women weren't wearing the pants. No, they were dressed virtually the same as they would have been in the city -- chemisettes, corsets, blouses and jackets on top, with long, heavy skirts and multiple crinolines on the bottom. Completing the look was a bonnet -- offering protection from the sun and dust, but often heavy and cumbersome too.

Add to that the need to ride sidesaddle to accommodate both manners and dress and it's a wonder any women chose to come to Yosemite at all. But they did, bringing with them their good manners and good breeding because, even as early as the late 1860s, Yosemite was not the Wild West (unlike the Gold Rush towns that surrounded it), but a tourist destination.

At the end of May, the destination for many of our local students will be Yosemite's Pioneer Village. For two days, each student will take on the persona of a historical character. They will dress, act, walk and talk as if it were the 1800s. To get them ready, a group of parents and teachers recently put together a round robin of activities to teach both boys and girls how to embroider, make 1800s-style art, play games like marbles and jacks and, most importantly, how to behave as if they were indeed in the Yosemite of yesteryear.

We were lucky in this. Anne Molin, one of Wawona's librarians, swears that in spite of her thoroughly modern upbringing, at heart she's an old-fashioned girl. And she proved it to our kids. Wearing the clothing of a Victorian Age visitor to Yosemite -- complete with high-neck blouse, strings of pearls and a hat resplendent with feathers, grapes, tulle and bows -- Anne took the students through the dos and dont's of civilized etiquette, circa 1880. "Use only last names as in 'Miss Molin.' First names are reserved for family." "Stand when a woman enters the room." "Pull out a woman's chair for her." "If you want to brag, do it subtly by calling your mother and father by the Latin pater and mater, thereby letting everyone know you are college educated."

I stand here today, mothers and fathers of Xbox-obsessed children, to tell you that the kids were transfixed by Anne. When she instructed them to never use the word "sweat" because "Horses sweat, men perspire and ladies glow," I too became a groupie. How does she know these things? "The Parnell Prepatory School for Girls," says Anne. Feeling she wasn’t being challenged in public school, her parents sent her to Parnell when she was nine. "That’s where my 19th century upbringing began." It was at Parnell that Anne learned to embroider (both sides had to be neat), arrange flowers, write pretty thank you notes and invitations, speak French and ride English-style. Thanks to the head mistress, Miss Yoder, she was also immersed in the classics and her lifelong love for books, writing, poetry, the sciences and manners began.

"Nowadays people think of etiquette as snooty and assume people are showing off," says Anne. "But real etiquette is showing respect for yourself and for others. I stressed to the students how important it was to be well bred back then -- if only to attract a good mate. Divorce was not an option. Who you married determined the rest of your life."

Given today's world, one would have thought her "pioneer" students would have thumbed their collective nose at her teachings. But no, not only did they give her their undivided attention, when she went outside unannounced, all the boys stood up -- a sign of respect and of another Yosemite lesson learned.

-- Jamie Simons/images: Jon Jay

In May 2009, while hiking in Yosemite National Park, long-time Los Angeles resident Jamie Simons turned to her husband and said, "I want to live here." Jamie and her family have since lived in the park. Check out all of her blog articles by clicking here.

Homemade tamales!

A fantastic opportunity for you to enjoy authentic, homemade, Mexican tamales, which will be delivered to Wawona! If you order some tamales, you will also be supporting a wonderful organization that operates its youth programming in Wawona.

Adventure Risk Challenge (ARC) is a small, grassroots youth development program, under the auspices of UC Berkeley & Merced, that focuses on literacy and leadership development among Central Valley youth (we also have a program in the Tahoe area). A lot of the programming involves academic curriculum and literacy development, but it is combined with outdoor adventures and wilderness expeditions. Because underprivileged youth have the opportunity to develop their literacy and life skills at the same time, ARC is one of the most transformational youth programs in the country! In addition to weekly academic enrichment in Merced Couty high schools, ARC runs a 40-day Leadership & Literacy Immersion Course that is based at the Wawona School each summer. You may have seen high school students running with their instructors early in the morning up Chilnualna Falls Road, sitting in a circle reading out loud behind the school, or preparing for one of the four backcountry expeditions that occurr during the course. ARC also hosts academic and adventure weekend retreats in Wawona once each month. Visit the website for more information: arcprogram.org. Adventure Risk Challenge is funded entirely by grants and donations, and selling tamales is their one local fundraiser each year. The tamales are made by mothers of students who participate in the programs, and because all the programming is free to the students and their families, the mothers are excited to help out and bring authentic Mexican tamales to your dinner table.

The deadline for you to order tamales is next Tuesday, February 28th. On Wednesday, the 29th, ARC's Program Director, Sarah Cupery Ottley, will be meeting with the moms to decide when they can prepare the tamales during the following week. They will be delivered, fresh, to Wawona between March 8 and 11, and it will be communicated with you when and where they will be available for pick-up. If you live or work in Wawona, it will be easy and convenient for you to pick up the tamales. The tamales freeze very well and last a year in the freezer, so order lots! You are also welcome to add an extra donation to ARC, if you only want a few tamales and are able to be generous. Please use the order form below and reply (soon) to Sarah Cupery Ottley, scottley@berkeley.edu, with all highlighted sections filled out. Thanks so much for your support!

Please write the number of dozens (1, 2, etc.) you would like to order next to the type of tamale you want. Order as many as you like (no half orders). You can receive your tamales uncooked (steam them for 40 minutes) or cooked (microwave for 2 minutes or steam for 5-10 minutes). The meat will have been pre-cooked no matter what, and you can freeze them for up to one year regardless.

02/18/2012

Year in Yosemite: Buddy System

If you were to wander through our Yosemite home, here's what you would find: In the kitchen, there's a fishing pole leaning up against a wall. There's a bow and arrows in the hall closet. Under my husband's desk is my daughter's Red Ryder BB gun and homemade Indian hunting sticks, while on the porch there are hiking boots, snowshoes, skiing paraphernalia and sleds. This is all as foreign to me as the lights of Paris would be to a caveman.

That's because I grew up in the most cosmopolitan of atmospheres. When I was my daughter's age, I hung out with friends at places like bowling alleys (I’m giving away my age here) and shopping centers. When my parents were doing the planning, activities expanded to include museums, symphony halls and theaters. As I grew older, life revolved around good food, movies, the theater and concerts. Nature, as in national parks and wild places, did not rate even a blip on my radar screen.

Needless to say, the fishing pole, hunting stick, bow and ski equipment do not belong to me. No, they reflect the interests of my husband and our daughter, especially since moving to Yosemite. Unlike city kids, our daughter doesn’t have a cell phone, has never played with an Xbox, hasn’t a clue what a Wii is. For Christmas she asked for cardboard boxes, rolls of duct tape and a Swiss Army knife. Last night she spent half an hour on the phone with her father (who’s away on business) comparing birdcalls. She was tickled to bits when he mistook the cry of a black-capped chickadee for a red-winged blackbird.

This makes me very happy. Of the many gifts that Yosemite has bestowed on my family, the greatest among them has been time. When we lived in Los Angeles, we hardly saw my husband. He would leave for work at 9 am and return almost 12 hours later. On weekends, he was so exhausted from his commute and the hours spent at the office, that doing family things was taxing. But not here.

Here in Yosemite, he and our daughter have built a relationship based on mutual interests—fishing, target shooting, hiking and exploring—and a love of each other's company. With no restaurants, movie theaters, bowling alleys and stores to divert attention, the emphasis is on personal interaction. The slow pace and often isolated existence have made my husband and daughter best buddies. She and I are close, but they are a mutual admiration society. Will it continue when we move back to Southern California this summer? I hope so. If not, as Rick assured Ilsa in the movie Casablanca, we’ll always have Yosemite.

-- Jamie Simons/top image: Jon Jay; bottom image: Bruce Chevillat.

In May 2009, while hiking in Yosemite National Park, long-time Los Angeles resident Jamie Simons turned to her husband and said, "I want to live here." Jamie and her family have since lived in the park. Check out all of her blog articles by clicking here.

Big Oak Flat Rd. Closure

Yosemite National Park announces that the Big Oak Flat Road (Highway 120) within the park will close at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 29, 2012, for the park to repair damage to the road caused by a large rockslide on January 22, 2012. The closure, in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week, is expected to last until early April. Crews will be working around the clock which necessitates a “hard-closure.”

The Big Oak Flat Entrance Station along the Big Oak Flat Road (Highway 120) via Groveland, remains open. Visitors arriving to the park via Highway 120 will have access to Hodgdon Meadow Campground, the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias, the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias, and the Crane Flat area. Hetch Hetchy also remains accessible along Highway 120. The park reopened the road five days after the rockslide after removing rocks and debris. However, the damaged section is not paved and needs permanent repairs to allow for safe travel. Working with engineers from the Federal Highway Administration, it was determined that there was extensive structural damage to the roadway necessitating a total rebuild of the affected section. Crews will be working below the steep slope in the rockslide area seven days per week, twenty hours per day, in order to expedite the repair of the damaged section of the road. The park secured emergency funding for the road repair and is now scheduling these repairs so the work is completed and the road reopened prior to the busy spring and summer seasons. It is anticipated that the work will be completed before the Easter Weekend. The park will issue periodic updates on the road reconstruction progress and estimated dates for reopening.

Yosemite National Park Announces Public Workshops, Site visits, and Webinars on the Merced River Plan

Events present a great opportunity for public to get involved in important planning effort

Yosemite National Park announces a series of Public Workshops, Site Visits, and Webinars for the public to engage in the alternative development process for the Comprehensive Management Plan for the Merced Wild and Scenic River (MRP). The meetings are a continuation of the park's outreach efforts from last fall in which the public was asked to provide input on what they would like to see included in the management alternatives evaluated in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to be released later this year. The MRP is a very important plan and will guide the future management of Yosemite within the Merced River corridor. These spring workshops will be yet another chance for the public to review work in progress and provide input directly to park planners about a range of conceptual approaches to protecting river values and managing use within the corridor. The MRP will guide future decisions about land use such as restoration, transportation, camping, parking, lodging, employee housing and other administrative uses, and set user capacity - most notably within Yosemite Valley - and will establish the management strategy and actions for the next 20 years by modifying the General Management Plan.

"This is a critical step in the public planning process and I can't stress enough how important it is for the public to remain engaged and invested," stated Don Neubacher, the park superintendent. "We ask that the public continue to inform this process and let us know what they think."

The Preliminary Alternative Concepts Workbook for the MRP will be published on the web site mid-March 2012 and distributed in hard-copy late March 2012. This document will provide a synopsis of each alternative concept as compared to existing conditions. Copies will also be provided to each of the Workshop/Site Visit participants.

Site Visits will provide an opportunity to discuss proposed actions "on-the-ground" at the locations where they may be implemented. They will be conducted in conjunction with the Workshops outlined above. Visitors are asked to wear comfortable walking shoes.

· Friday, April 13, 2012, 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m., meet at the Wawona Community Hall

There will also be two webinars conducted that will review the draft alternatives. These will be held on Tuesday, March 27, 2012, at 10:00 a.m., and on Wednesday, April 11, 2012, at 6:30 p.m. People can participate in the webinars by logging into yose.webex.com

Park entrance fees will be waived for people attending the Public Workshops/Site Visits for the MRP. Visitors are asked to tell the park ranger at the entrance station that they will be attending one of the Public Workshops/Site Visits.

02/08/2012

Year in Yosemite: On the Wing

On a recent outing to Yosemite Valley, my family and I visited the Indian Museum. Amid the basketry, hunting tools, dioramas and clothing, there hung an exquisite "skirt" made of luminescent feathers of dark brown flecked with shimmering gold. It was breathtaking. Apparently used for ceremonial purposes by Yosemite's Miwok people, I assumed that anything so beautiful and precious must have been made from the feathers of a golden eagle.

My reasons for this assumption were logical enough. With all due respect to Ben Franklin and his love for the wild turkey, in America, eagles are king. Plus, since moving to Yosemite, I've seen golden eagles in the wild. Their feathers are indeed brown touched with shimmering gold, but, in this case, I was very wrong. Reading the sign, I learned these feathers were not from an eagle but from a flicker, and although I know birders are cringing at this moment, that word meant nothing to me. In almost three years in Yosemite, to my knowledge I'd never seen one, but now I know I've heard them. According to Google, flickers are large woodpeckers.

During our time in Yosemite, my husband and I have often talked about the apparent absence of birds. If you go on the Yosemite National Park website, you can see the park ornithologist talk with enthusiasm about Yosemite's unique and abundant bird life. Seems there have been 261 species of birds spotted within the park boundaries, a diversity attributed to habitat that ranges from 2,000 to 13,000 feet and that covers a range of climate patterns. Apparently, if you have knowledge and patience, Yosemite is a birder's paradise.

But I've spent the last few weeks reading the 1850's diary of a man who came across America during California's Gold Rush. As he made his way into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, he wrote about packs of wolves, massive herds of antelope, "clouds of wild geese" and skies so filled with crows they blotted out the sun.*

To be in Yosemite now is to live with the blessings of quiet, peace and serenity. But always tickling the back of my mind is the larger question: What have we missed? What was it like when grizzlies roamed the forests? When mountain lions reigned supreme and birds flew by the thousands? Only the Miwok and Paiute will ever know and their numbers have dwindled at the same alarming rate as the fauna.

In the 1980s I spent six months in Africa, almost two months of it in Botswana's Okavango Delta. At that time there were no rules about how one traveled there. You got in your car (preferably a four-wheeler) and drove around on your own across the countryside with no regard for roads (there were hardly any), then threw your sleeping bag on the ground at night. Rangers were as rare as leopards. Yet almost daily I was awed by the sight of thousands of zebras and wildebeest migrating in single file across the horizon, prides of lions, herds of elephants, mother cheetahs keeping watch over their babies and dazzling, abundant birdlife. At the time, I kept telling myself, "You aren't seeing what people saw ten years ago and ten years from now people won't see as much as you." I've tried to apply the same reasoning to Yosemite, but some part of me feels cheated.

And yet, on the very same day we visited the Indian Museum, we left The Ahwanhee Hotel to see one lone bird feeding from the lawn outside the portico. Over and over, it bobbed its long, curved beak into the earth looking for dinner. Its wings were golden flecked with brown, across its cheeks was a flash of red. It seemed so magnificent, I had to ask its name. "A flicker," answered my husband. I stood, took in its singular beauty and was grateful.

In May 2009, while hiking in Yosemite National Park, long-time Los Angeles resident Jamie Simons turned to her husband and said, "I want to live here." Jamie and her family have since lived in the park. Check out all of her blog articles by clicking here.

Half Dome EA Webinar February 10, at 1:00 PM

February 8, 2012

Join us this Friday, February 10, at 1:00 PM, Pacific Standard Time for a webinar to discuss the Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan Environmental Assessment (EA). To access the webinar, go to http://yose.webex.com.

We developed this plan to address crowded conditions, visitor experience, and safety on the Half Dome Cables. The preferred alternative retains the cables and sets daily use levels on the Half Dome Trail at 300 people. To find out more, download a copy of the plan by visiting http://parkplanning.nps.gov/halfdome or request a hard copy by emailing yose_planning@nps.gov. The Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan EA will be open to public review through Thursday, March 15, 2012. Please submit written comments electronically through the park website, http://parkplanning.nps.gov/halfdome. You may also mail your comments to Superintendent, Yosemite National Park, ATTN: Half Dome Plan, P.O. Box 577 Yosemite, California 95389; or send a facsimile to 209/379-1294.

FONSI for The Ahwahnee Comprehensive Rehabilitation Plan The Ahwahnee Comprehensive Rehabilitation Plan Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is now available. The FONSI records the decision of the National Park Service to adopt a long-term plan for the rehabilitation of The Ahwahnee, described as Alternative 3 in the environmental assessment released for public review in July 2011. All comments on the EA received during the public comment period were reviewed by park staff and were considered in the development of the FONSI and errata sheets. The FONSI, environmental assessment, and errata sheets are available at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/AhwahneeRehab

February Open House Join us for our monthly open house on February 29, 2012, in the Yosemite Valley Auditorium from 1-4 pm. Entrance fees will be waived for attendees. Presentations will begin at 2pm and last around 45 minutes. The presentation this month will feature the Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan Environmental Assessment, and rangers will be on hand afterwards to answer any questions. Hardcopies of the Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan EA and the FONSI for The Ahwahnee Comprehensive Rehabilitation Plan will be available. We hope to see you there!

_EDWARD MEE - CANDIATE FOR DISTRICT 5 SUPERVISOR

_I was born in Yosemite Valley into two pioneer Mariposa
families, the Gordons and Ashworths.I
have had a home in Wawona since high school and have lived here for the past eleven
years.I retired from law enforcement after 33 years.I am a commissioner for the Mariposa County
Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), having been appointed in 2007 and
Chair in 2010.I have been the Chair of
the Wawona Town Planning Advisory Committee since 2001, being appointed in
1999.In 2005 I was a member of a group
of citizens from the communities of Wawona and Fish Camp who started a
non-profit educational foundation.Since
the incorporation of the Yosemite-Wawona Educational Foundation that year, I
have been the Chairperson of the Board of Directors.The primary challenge to Mariposa County will be the impact
of the State budget on county funded services.I will work with our state leaders, employees and the constituents I
represent to maintain our current level of services.Tourism has been our largest industry for
some years now.I will also work to
promote this industry in which I have worked part time for the last six
years.Being retired, I have the time to represent the residents of
District 5 and have the background and experience to do that well.